The Official Home of the Clan McLea - the Highland Livingstones

How the family came to be the Coarb of St Moluag, Keeper of his pastoral
staff and Hereditary Abbot of Lismore is uncertain. However the most
likely explanation is as follows.

Moluag will have been granted permission to establish his community by the
lords of Lorn, who at that time were the Kings of Dalriada, becoming known as
the Kings of Argyll in the reign of Aedh 'The White' who died in 778.

On Moluag's death he was succeeded by Neman (Neamhan) who died in 610.
Eochaid, the third Abbot died in 637 at which point records disappear according
to Carmichael in Lismore in Alba but recent reserach in the Irish Annals has
produced more evidence (see Irish Annals ). Abbot
MacCoigeth is known to have died in 753. Norse raiding began in 794 and lasted
until Somerled expelled them in the 12th Century.

Carmichael writes "When the Abbot of a monastery died, certain well
defined and detailed rules were followed in appointing his successor.
Indeed, it was probably known to the saint himself before his death who
would be his "comarba" (or coarb) or heir of the holy functions and
authority which he exercised. There were two main classes from whom the
successor should be chosen. First, the blood relatives of the Abbot were
scanned and if a suitable man were found he was selected. Relationship was
not sufficient in itself however: the person must have qualifications
suitable for the office. If the deceased's family could not provide the
kind of man required, then search was made amongst the second class, who
were the kindred of the king or landlord who had granted the land to the
monastery."

Moncreiffe writes "Celtic abbey-lands were held either by the fine
erluma, the kin of the founder saint, or else by the fine grin, the
kin of the dynastic granter of the land. As Picts, St. Moluag's kindred would in
any case have been reckoned in the female line, and may well have been related
in the male line to the kin of the granter, who was presumably the King of Lorn.
Certainly the abbey-lands belonged in later times to the local kings who became
the lords of Lorn."

It is probable therefore that in the troubled times of the Norse raids the
coarb moved to the fine grin the kin of the lords of Lorn, now
represented by the Livingstones of Bachuil.

This movement of the office of coarb or hereditary abbot to the fine grin
was quite common practice and is the subject of some criticism. For
instance in 850 Kenneth mac Alpin moved the primacy from Iona to Dunkeld and by
the eleventh century the hereditary abbots of Dunkeld are part of the Royal
family.